1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to surveys, and more specifically, to World Wide Web-based survey creation, design, deployment, and result compilation and tracking.
2. Background of the Invention
Surveying is an important tool utilized in performing research and is generally used to collect data relating to people's opinions, preferences, knowledge and availability. In the context of market research, the collected data drives many decisions in the business world. More generally, surveys are conducted with varying degrees of formality to plan activities, gauge community opinions, solicit ideas and feedback, and gather information of a desired nature.
Conventional surveying techniques include paper-based surveys conducted through the mails, telephone surveys, and face-to-face interviews. As noted above, surveying is also often performed on an informal basis to gather input and solicit feedback on a particular topic by asking a group of people the same set of questions on the topic. Thus, a family reunion can be planned by asking family members to submit a preferred time and place for the reunion. The same family members may also be asked to submit alternative times and places together with preference rankings for each.
Since the introduction of the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet, market researchers and individuals are increasingly using the WWW as a medium for executing surveys and obtaining feedback. Individuals and organizations conventionally have accessible HTML documents (web pages) which are served from server machines and accessed by a web browser. These web pages conventionally include an e-mail address providing a visitor to the web page with a mechanism for responding to the content of the web page.
In addition, the WWW provides a medium for delivering summarized survey response data back to organizations and individuals that wish to make inferences from it. By coupling the mechanism used to execute WWW-based surveys and the WWW mechanism used to deliver summarized survey response data, it is possible to deliver survey results in real time.
However, despite advances in WWW-based surveys, there remains a need for an improved system and method that provides quick and easy construction and publication of WWW-based surveys on the Internet and which further provides quick access to the survey results for analysis. Preferably the system and method enable a user to collect feedback and survey groups of people for a plurality of purposes including business, personal/social, education, and community.